A little later, when the sun was quite down, in the background of the curdled clouds smouldered a wine-red mass of colour, that faded to bronze and tinged all the fading greens with its sanguinary hue.

This small but inspiring pack of kindred corduroy spirits, including the stylish auteur Wes Anderson whose rust-colored cord suits are made by Mr. Ned, a made-to-measure tailor in Manhattan, have no doubt inspired similarly twee designers such as Simon Spurr — who paired wine-red corduroy pants with a trench coat for his runway show this season — and Ralph Lauren, who matched a dove-gray corduroy blazer, vest and bermuda short for his fall collection.